Archibald Murray

Archibald Murray (23 April 1860-21 January 1945) was a General of the British Army who played a major role in World War I's Ottoman Front as the commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, laying the groundwork for the British and Arab conquest of Palestine.

Biography
An intelligence officer during the Second Boer War, Murray's military career started in 1879. In 1914 he was appointed Chief-of-Staff of the British Expeditionary Force, although he was originally supposed to be made the Quartermaster-General. Murray suffered a physical breakdown after the disaster in the Battle of Mons and in January 1915 he was forced to step down from the position as commander of British troops in France and was briefly Chief of the Imperial General Staff from September to December 1915. One month later he was appointed as the commander of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force and he laid the plans for the defeat of the German-backed Turks in Palestine. His army of 300,000 British and Commonwealth troops captured the Sinai Peninsula in March 1916 and in March 1917 he had defeated Turkish troops Gaza, despite failing to capture the city. In June, he was replaced by Edmund Allenby.